Strictly for the Birds

It's been a busy week for me, but I still found a little time to have a leisurely lunch out. Due to the heat and doing a ton of things around the house, I've been wearing pretty casual clothes lately like shorts, tees and sneakers, but I decided to dress up a bit for my lunch date. This included debuting my amazing black and white floral skirt from SheIn, which made me feel like my glamorous self once again!

I love anything that has black and white stripes; there is something so classic and chic about the look! Because of my love for black and white stripes, I have accumulated a substantial collection of striped tees, skirts and dresses. Even though I have a million black and white articles of clothing, I loved the greenery and birds that are featured on this midi-length skirt. You might think this attention to detail is strictly for the birds but, as you know, I am all about quirky details!

Skirt: c/o Shein here

Blouse: J. Crew here

Shoes: Kate Spade similar here

Bag: Coach similar pink bag here

Sunglasses: Prada "Baroque" here

Earrings: Baublebar "Crispin" similar here, here, and here

Linking Up With: Weekend Wear, Passion for Fashion, Flashback Friday, Fabulous Friday, Fun Fashion Friday ,Friday Faves

A Lust for Lemons

I love lemons, be it lemon tarts, lemonade, or clothing featuring this summery fruit! In fact, I feel like I do at least two post featuring some article of clothing with a lemon print every summer. As you can see, I have a passion for lemons, whether it's consuming them or wearing them. Clearly I don't need any more lemon print items in my wardrobe, but I thought this lemonade halter dress from LOFT was exquisite. Naturally, I couldn't pass it up!

I instantly fell in love with this dress as soon as I put it on in the fitting room. It fit like a glove and it  was also so light and comfortable, which is perfect for the heat wave that is summer in Los Angeles. The contrasting yellow and blue lemon print is, however, what sold me on it. When my husband first saw me in this dress, he exclaimed, "you look like summer!" He wasn't alone in having that thought, as I received similar comments the first time I wore this dress out. Truly, this dress does scream "summer!", which was exactly what I was going for!

Dress: LOFT lemonade halter dress
Shoes: J. Crew similar red sandals here
Bag: H&M similar straw bag here
Earrings: Bauble Bar yellow "Crispin" earrings
Sunglasses: Celine here

Linking Up With: Fun Fashion Friday, Fabulous Fridays
,Passion for Fashion ,Flashback Friday, Weekend Wear, On the Edge,How I Summer, Shoe and Tell 

Fun in the Sun

I think when you live in California, especially L.A., it's mandatory that you own at least a few things that feature palm trees. Since palm trees are so iconic in the state in which I live, I naturally gravitated to this fun J. Crew Tippi sweater with its cheerful sun and palm tree illustration. One thing that many of the people who reviewed this item online noted, and to which I can attest as well, is that it appears in person to be much brighter than in pictures. In fact, my husband asked if I was going hunting in this, since its neon orange color does evoke the image of some hunting gear that you might find in your local sporting goods store!

The weather here in Los Angeles has been all over the place as of late. Some days are overcast and cool while others, like the day these pictures were taken, foreshadow the hot, bright summer months ahead where there's not a cloud to be found in the sky. To go along with the bright, sunny day, I paired my outfit with some equally bright accessories, such as my new yellow suede pom pom shoes, turquoise sunglasses, and colorful tassel bag. So while I may not be on a hunting expedition, as you can see, I am constantly on the hunt for bright, colorful accessories!

Sweater: J. Crew Tippi in embroidered palm trees here
Pants: Old Navy linen blend pixie pants here
Shoes: J. Crew Gemma suede flats with pom poms here
Bag: Rebecca Minkoff same style in white, black
Earrings: Bauble Bar here, similar here
Sunglasses: Stella McCartney here

Linking Up With: Weekend Wear, Fun Fashion Friday, Fabulous Friday, Flashback Friday, On the Edge, Passion for Fashion

Mrs. Green Pants

I'm always on the look out for fun murals. Many murals I find by using the help of others bloggers and Instagramers in the Los Angeles area, whereas some murals I just discover on my own. This fun car mural located in North Hollywood was one of the latter, as I haven't really seen it used before, but hopefully it gets some more love because it's pretty cool. This reminds me that, eventually, I want to create a comprehensive wall guide to the Los Angeles area. It will be coming soon. I promise!

Like this wall, my green pants were also a recent discovery or, shall I say, purchase. I bought them a couple weeks ago at Target and there's sort of a funny story behind them. I was shopping at Target with my husband and while checking out, I left him to go look at something else. (Truth be told, I was looking at clothing for me in the children's department!) Anyway, when I came back the checker exclaimed, "Oh, so these are your green pants, then!" Apparently, he thought they were my husband's and, as I found out later, the checker asked him about them to which my husband, thinking that the checker was being sarcastic, explained sarcastically that they were indeed his pants and that he had been looking for such a pair for months!

I found it immensely funny that the checker would assume that my husband could fit into a size 4 woman's pants and that he would wear bright green pants! At this point, my husband and I both surmised that the checker might have been smoking something green, if you catch my drift, because he started rambling about how probably only a rich man could pull off wearing the green pants because he could do anything he wanted and no one would say anything. Needless to say, it was very strange checkout experience! If you don't find this story amusing, I'll defend myself by stating that I suppose you just had to be there to get the humor. Regardless, this experience made for a colorful story behind this vibrant article of clothing.

Shirt: J. Crew similar here
Pants: Target ankle pants here, J. Crew version here
Bag: Clare V. leopard clutch here
Shoes: Christian Louboutin similar here and here
Earrings: Bauble Bar "Sandbar Drop" here
Sunglasses: Celine

Linking Up With: Thursday Moda, A Labour of Fashion, Thursday Fashion Files
Passion for Fashion, Fun Fashion Friday, Fabulous Friday, On the Edge, Weekend Wear

When Life Gives You Lemons...

I came across an amusing joke on the Instagram account of Carson Kressley (of former Queer Eye for the Straight Guy fame and most recently a contestant on The Celebrity Apprentice) recently about lemons. He transformed the old adage "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade" into "when life gives you lemons, get vodka". After a long week, that doesn't sound like a bad idea!

Lemons are always a staple for summer dressing. Most recently, I picked up this lemon T-shirt from J. Crew for about $15 and it still pops up occasionally online. (They did, however, have an entire stack of them last week in store!) Since then, J. Crew, in addition to other retailers, have all come out with a number of items featuring lemons, all of which I would like to add to my growing collection of lemon themed apparel!

The one thing I don't have in my collection is a lemon bag. (It's next on my list!) The good news is that designers have that area covered too! Below are some of my favorite lemon bags for summer. My favorite being the one that looks like an actual lemon from C. Wonder. I love bags that look like other things, so it's right up my alley!

I decided to pair white jeans with my navy lemon tee, both of which are staples of summer, even thought it's not summer quite yet. These jeans were another amazing deal that I picked up at the J. Crew Factory for only $12! I think they were actually from the regular J. Crew, but somehow made it to the outlet. To add an additional pop of color to my ensemble, I garnished it with these fun tassel earrings from Bauble Bar. I had been looking for an excuse to wear them, much like I am now looking for an excuse to drink some lemonade with a splash of Vodka!

Tee: J. Crew here
Jeans: J. Crew "toothpick" here and sale version here
Bag: Louis Vuitton similar here and here
Shoes: J. Crew similar here
Earrings: Bauble Bar "Catalina" here
Sunglasses: Celine

Linking Up With: Weekend Wear, Flashback Friday, On The Edge, Fabulous Friday, Fun Fashion Friday ,Passion for Fashion

Gridlocked

This is totally unrelated to my outfit, but indulge me for a second while I rant about the traffic in Los Angeles. It is awful! It has always been bad, but each year the gridlock on the freeways gets worse and worse. As you can see, I am really sick of it, which is why I am desperately looking forward to my spring break coming up because that means I won't have to sit in traffic for two hours everyday going to and from work. Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I can proceed to my outfit, which features a grid print, thus also tying in with the title of this post. This grid print pencil skirt from Banana Republic not only features a fun graphic print, but it's got a lot of stretch to it, so it would make for something comfortable to wear while sitting in said traffic for two hours!

I love the color combination of green and pink! (Maybe because it reminds me of a watermelon?) I decided to utilize this color scheme to make the black and white print of the skirt really "pop". Originally, I was thinking of wearing bright pink shoes, but instead I opted for a pair of pink earrings. These pink tassel earrings have become a favorite of mine over the last month, plus they are also very light and comfortable just like the skirt!

Skirt: Banana Republic gingham midi pencil skirt
Tee: Target similar here
Bag: Fendi wallet on a chain here, blue version, pink version, red version
Shoes: Christian Louboutin "Simple" pump here
Sunglasses: Celine similar white sunglasses here
Earrings: Sugarfix from Target here

Linking Up With: Hello Monday, How I Spring, Shoe and Tell
Trend Spin, Turning Heads

Earring Safari

I was late to the party when it came to the "coming of age" ritual of getting my ears pierced. I think I was probably just going to college when I finally decided to take the plunge and have it done. After my ears had healed, I found that I seldom wore earrings after that. I was more into rings, necklaces and watches, but not earrings. That trend continued for many, many years and now that I am in my 30s it's actually a miracle that my ears haven't closed up! Well, I've finally come around to wearing earrings again and, true to my wardrobe aesthetic, I decided to go big or go home!

One of the pairs I bought recently were these fun ball or lantern earrings from Bauble Bar. I loved that they were striped and decided that they would go with a lot in my wardrobe. The thing I didn't consider is that they were heavy and probably not the best thing to wear for someone with "virginal" ear piercings! So, I basically wore them for an hour and then took them off. I heaved a big sigh of relief! Since then, I have really enjoyed Bauble Bar's new line at Target called Sugarfix, which I will feature in an upcoming post. It's going to take some time to work up to wearing these striped earrings all day, but I am confident that after some practice I'll be able to build up to it!

On a final note, as you can see I am going for sort of a "safari look" with this ensemble between my beloved zebra sweater and my khaki fatigue dress. The white sunglasses, dangly (and heavy!) earrings, and my rainbow clutch make it more of a fun and funky safari! The zebra sweater was actually one of the reasons that I purchased the earrings in the first place, since I thought the stripes with the zebra stripes would be a great match. I think they are!

Sweater: J. Crew Zebra cardigan similar here
Dress: J. Crew Tired Fatigue Shirtdress here
Clutch: Milly Rainbow clutch here
Shoes: J. Crew "Valentina" similar red pumps
Earrings: Bauble Bar "Crispin" here
Sunglasses: Celine

Linking Up With: Weekend Wear, Fun Fashion Friday, Fabulous Friday, Flashback Friday, Passion For Fashion ,Saturday Share